Nvidia 960 PCI-e 3.0 question

[squallvn1]

Hi, I bough the GTX 960 today and when I opened the GPUz i found that my card is on PCI-E 2.0... Is that normal?

My motherboard is : X79-UP4

Here is the GPUZ screenshot

Thank you ​

 

[64K]

I can't see your GPUZ screenshot. Sometimes work blocks pics but anyway you will be fine. Your mobo supports PCI-E 3.0 and even if it didn't 3.0 cards are backwards compatible with 2.0

 

[newtekie1]

What processor do you have? The i7-3000 series supported only PCI-E 2.0, the i7-4000 series allowed PCI-E 3.0.

 

[rtwjunkie]

What processor do you have? The i7-3000 series supported only PCI-E 2.0, the i7-4000 series allowed PCI-E 3.0.

Not to worry though! PCIe 2.0 will not hurt you in any way at all.

 

[squallvn1]

What processor do you have? The i7-3000 series supported only PCI-E 2.0, the i7-4000 series allowed PCI-E 3.0.

Im using i73930k... I didn't know that

 

[rtwjunkie]

Im using i73930k... I didn't know that

your 960 will not be impacted by PCIe 2.0. There is ALOT of bandwidth there, and I seriously doubt a 960 could even use it all.

 

[squallvn1]

your 960 will not be impacted by PCIe 2.0. There is ALOT of bandwidth there, and I seriously doubt a 960 could even use it all.

Ok, thank you

 

[Maban]

You can make it use 3.0 if you really want to with a patch but it's not going to make a difference in performance.

I can't seem to paste here from my tablet so just search for Nvidia Pcie patch.

 

[ChevyOwner]

Aaccording to http://ark.intel.com/products/63697/Intel-Core-i7-3930K-Processor-12M-Cache-up-to-3_80-GHz the 3930 does not support PCIE Gen 3
Also See here http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3135/

 

[eidairaman1]

your 960 will not be impacted by PCIe 2.0. There is ALOT of bandwidth there, and I seriously doubt a 960 could even use it all.

Running a 290 on Peg 2.0, no problems here

 

[Sasqui]

Running a 290 on Peg 2.0, no problems here

Running a 290x on an i5-3570 chip*

Even some suggestion that PCIe 2.0 is faster here: http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Impact-of-PCI-E-Speed-on-Gaming-Performance-518/ ...No doubt a product of drivers.

*Unlike GTX 270 owners, I have no complaints, lol

 

[ChevyOwner]

"Unlike GTX 270 owners, I have no complaints, lol

I'm going to guess you meant GTX 970, and there was no 270.

PS
I wont believe that link until they also show that the video cards were indeed using PCIE gen 3 on the x79.

I have an X79 with two 660s for now and unless I use NVIDIA's "patch" they will not use gen 3, but are limited to gen 2.

 

[BUFDUP]

its because of x79. i had the same issue.
i have a 3930k and it showed pci-e 2.0. i read that some 3930k cpu's with cpu stepping c2 is 100% compatible with pci-e 3.0.
nvidia released a file which forces pci-e 3.0 and it worked for me.

when i ran firestrike, i got a 8% increase in gpu score of my 980sli

if it didnt reallly support pci-e 3.0 then why did it have the option to choose "gen 3" in the bios?

 

[BUFDUP]

Aaccording to http://ark.intel.com/products/63697/Intel-Core-i7-3930K-Processor-12M-Cache-up-to-3_80-GHz the 3930 does not support PCIE Gen 3
Also See here http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3135/

if thats the case, then why did it for from pci-e 2.0 to pci-e 3.0 and the increase in performance from the change?

 

[BUFDUP]

here is a screenshot of pci-e 3.0 working on my 980's from my 3930k/sabertooth X79

Firestrike Scores PCI-E 2.0 and PCI-E 3.0

PCI-E 2.0

PCI-E 3.0

Maximum best on my X79 Rig

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/5307615?

3930K @ 4.7Ghz 1.39v
GTX 980 SLI 1541/8000

 

[ChevyOwner]

if thats the case, then why did it for from pci-e 2.0 to pci-e 3.0 and the increase in performance from the change?

I don't have a 3930K, and I can only use the information INTEL provides no matter how accurate or inaccurate that is. This is also why I included links.

 

[xfia]

you may have just shown that fire strike was optimized using 3.0 or something along those lines. some games optimized using 2.0 have better performance with 2.0 that is a few fps. the fact is the bandwidth of 2.0 has yet to be saturated. the real world performance difference is unnoticeable to the human eye and is highly unlikely it will be more than a few fps in any game.

 

[aventine61]

I have a 3930k processor, x79, and my computer will not post. I get the blue loading screen, three spaced-out beeps, and then a black screen with an underscore blinking in the top left. I've updated to the newest BIOS, but they are from December 2012. Any chance this patch could help? It probably wouldn't since I don't even get as far as the operating system loading, right?

 

[ChevyOwner]

I have a 3930k processor, x79, and my computer will not post. I get the blue loading screen, three spaced-out beeps, and then a black screen with an underscore blinking in the top left. I've updated to the newest BIOS, but they are from December 2012. Any chance this patch could help? It probably wouldn't since I don't even get as far as the operating system loading, right?

Test your RAM.

 

[aventine61]

The RAM is fine, my GTX 550 Ti still works fine. This is the second GTX 970 I've tried, each from a different manufacturer.

 

[ChevyOwner]

Who made the BIOS? Three beeps like you are describing is normally RAM.

 

[aventine61]

HP. It is a Pittsburgh mobo.

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Im no gpuz expert but what happens if you run the render test........ press the ? button on the bus interface line and see if that changes from 2.0 to 3.0.

I may be wrong but for the sake of a couple of clicks.................

 

[ChevyOwner]

HP. It is a Pittsburgh mobo.

That may be the model of the motherboard but it does not say who made the BIOS.

 

[aventine61]

That may be the model of the motherboard but it does not say who made the BIOS.

Well it says "HP" when it is loading on the first blue loading screen. It is Version 7.15 Revision A of their BIOS.

CAPSLOCKSTUCK, I don't get that far with this card. It doesn't even load Windows. =\